Thursday, January 12, 2012

PlayChilla happily introduces his game, Shadowess, with a warning. This game is hard! And boy is that warning true. But he also attributes it to an almost throwback to retro gaming where gameplay was very hard. You didn't have all the ease and save points that you do in modern video gaming. So with that I'll start my review...

At first glance Shadowess would seem like your everyday puzzle game, actually probably a very boring one at that. Your only goal is to get the green dot on the other side of the map. BUT, a twist! You have to stick to the shadows. This brings a hint of extra difficulty. There are other orbs around which emit light, if you get into their light rays they will come at you as they can sense you through their light. If they get you, you die. Adding to this difficulty is the element of noise. Touch a wall or other obstacle too hard and you send a noise out, alerting of your presence to your imminent death. Further playing off this noise factor is an element of pebble throwing in later levels to distract your glowing orb oppressors and send them in false directions allowing you to slip by them unnoticed. The rest of the extreme difficulty comes into play just by shear level design.

Shadowess also plays a story element that combined with the creepy background music does make for a creepy game indeed. While Shadowess may not have the best graphics, frankly it doesn't need to. People are going to play this game, and then come back to it, due to the difficulty. While a lot of people hate extremely hard games, others (including myself) do like the change of pace and will come back to play them.